Thursday, August 9, 2012

Leadman thoughts. The end is near.

And if I close my mind in fear. Please pry it open. And if my face becomes sincere. Beware. And if I start to come undone. Stitch me together.
In 48 hours I'll be in the middle of the Leadville 100 mountain bike race and more importantly, sorting out the Leadman. So far in the series the top 5 guys are all within 50:00 of each other. I'm barely in the lead but that is going to change on Saturday. The Leadman field is stellar! The record is going to be destroyed probably by 5-7 HOURS... but who takes first place is anyone's guess.

Over the last many months I had planned on focusing solely on the 100 run but after the Leadville Marathon I torqued my knee which killed most of my key run training. So in the absence of the running I had planned I've tried to make up some bike fitness lately but I doubt it will be enough. 3 of the guys behind me are fantastic cyclists. Last year Al Thresher rode (on a single speed) a full hour faster then me. Kimo is a past top 10 finisher (!) and could easily put ~2 hours in to me. Troy Howard beat me last year too plus he has the second fastest time ever at the Hardrock 100 run, the dude is a bad-ass. Troy is my danger man and if I have the choice I'll try to find him in the melee (we both start in the same corral) and key off him and try to limit my losses. But really the only 2 goals I have on Saturday are to not crash and to ride as easily as possible and still go ~8:30. Last year I started dead last and rode 8:37, this year I'm in a front corral, so I'm optimisticish.
The 10k on Sunday I have no idea but I'll race this hard.
The last few weeks though haven't been a complete wash in my jogging. I am able to run 2 times a week, any more than that and I'm hobbled with knee pain. But with this last week's rest I saw a huge improvement and it feels very solid and will not be a factor next weekend.
My last 3 weeks of jogging:
70 miles in 3 runs with 14000 ft vertical. Crap ton of cycling. The third run was a wash and I had to limp home.

56 miles in 2 runs with 8400 ft vertical. One run was a long tempo run the day after a 6 hour/ 11,000+ft vertical ride. Very solid 24 hours.

19 miles in 2 runs. One run being a 2:00 with the baby jogger with 2400ft of climbing (pushing ~110 pounds). This was harder than the 30+ mile runs I've done. And since I would never subject my kids to 2 hours in that thing I opted instead to load it with weight plates. I felt like a dork but this is easily the hardest thing I've done this year.

This week has been one very easy jog and that's it! So 1 run.

The big finale is finally here! I'm crazy anxious to get the 100 run going more than anything. I feel that I have two strengths coming in to it. Being crazy rested is #1.My pacer is #2. Having an experienced, bad ass 100 mile racer, ultra coach, past Leadville top 15 finisher and friend by my side is a dream. I draw a huge amount of confidence just from knowing Tim will be with me for the last 50 miles.

Best of luck to you. This quest is awesome. You are are superior to me in your training and ability. But I do have one word of advice. That is, be prepared for ANYTHING, even the thing that never crossed your mind. In my short career of ultra's it seems like the thing that GETS ME, is the thing I didn't think of. So now, I go in with "anything, ANYTHING can happen."